to think having kids can improve your looks

[nickEcave]

Recently I was looking back at our photos from the last 10 years. I'm 39 now and DDs are 7 and 3. There were plenty of photos from when they were babies/toddlers and not sleeping where I look knackered and horrendous, but i noticed that in lots of the more recent ones, in the pictures where I'm doing stuff with DDs I look so much better than I did 10 or 15 years ago. I'm obviously older and also a fair bit heavier than I used to be but I look kind of more luminous, as if being with them lights me up. Don't know if this is actually how I look in real life or just in photos. Anyway I know this makes me sound hideously vain and self-obsessed, but is there anyone else who thinks they look better since having kids?

I don't think I look better since having kids, but I have the same as you with family photos. I look awful in just about every picture when they were little and look a lot better in pictures now, but no better than I did before children.

My skin is definitely better now. DD is 2. And I am a bit slimmer as I lost a lot to fall pg.

I just think our eyesight gets worse, I look great when I look in the mirror without my glasses on and refuse to believe that is not the real me .

ha ha velvet, I've always been really short sighted so perhaps I've just been deluded all my life

I looked great while the DDs were babies and toddlers. I figured the swollen, puffy, tired eyes ironed out some of the lines...

I think there's definitely something in what you're saying, OP - fulfilment and happiness definitely show on the outside! I agree completely with the word "luminous" and the idea of being lit from within when you are happy.

This is threatening to be a very soppy post but I do think that giving unconditional love to your children changes you, and makes you more "beautiful", inside and out. (Mind you, I've finished all the hard work with mine...!)

Well..having kids made my hair much better. I was a Rapunzel right after having each one . I wasnt maternal at all before I had my DCs. That all changed after I became a mum and for that reason I feel I do look better..or at least, no worse than I did many years ago.

No, I am about 2 stone heavier, more grey hair, my skin is even worse than it used to be, I have aged about 15 years in the last 5 and when I catch sight of myself in a shop window I am often surprised to see which clothes I have chucked on that morning!

I would say that on the whole I am pretty happy and fulfilled.

One of the best photos of me was taken when DS1 was about 6 months old. I was glowing!.

It dawned on me that it was due to the fact I walked everywhere with him in his buggy. Fresh air and exercise is the answer.

A friend of mine had terrible problems with acne up until her mid thirties. After giving birth to her first child it cleared up and she has a lovely glowing complexion.

Thanks bettercall, I was worried about coming across as vain, but I read so many posts, particularly on they style and beauty board, from people who think they look awful after having kids and I just wanted to see if many people out there felt the opposite. I'm no beauty - I look my age and, whilst I think my figure is OK, I've got a BMI of 28 and a big mum tum, but I honestly think that I look more attractive in photos with the DCs than I did pre-DC when I was younger and slimmer.